


Moonlight Cocktail

by magicianparrish



Series: AU Prompts [4]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: 1940s AU, F/M, WWII AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-22
Updated: 2015-09-22
Packaged: 2018-04-22 22:23:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4852757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicianparrish/pseuds/magicianparrish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU Prompt: 1942, on opposite sides of the war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moonlight Cocktail

**Author's Note:**

> This one was posted on the group pjoaus by myself under the same pen name. The details of the request were this: 
> 
> Percy and Annabeth, both officers in the army, but on the opposite side. Like, Annabeth maybe as a drafted German officer, exceptionally good at battle tactics and strategy pitted against Percy, an American Rifle Company Captain, charged with taking some random, obscure but strategically vital town from the Axis. 
> 
> And of course with myself being a history major and I had to jump at this opportunity. The scene presented is strongly based from the movie Inglorious Basterds which is a wild ride of a movie a great one. So if it seems familiar to you, that's why. Hope you enjoy it.

The war had been going on for three years now. It was 1942 and the United States has been at war between the Axis Powers in Europe consisting of Germany and Italy, as well as in the Pacific against the Empire of Japan. They had only declared war last year when the Japanese air bombed Pearl Harbor leading to President Roosevelt and Congress to officially declare war.

Percy had seen it all. He was born on August 18, 1919 just under a year after the Great War had ended over in Europe that shook everyone down to their very core. When he was ten years old he witnessed the crash and burn of the stock market on Wall Street as well as Black Tuesday. Percy’s father, Peter Donald had died right before Percy’s birth from exposure to toxic gas in the trenches in France. His mother, Sally Donald nee Jackson, took on her last name despite what everyone else thought and well, so did her son. By the time the Great Depression rolled in, it was the two of them against the world. Percy learned how to survive on the streets, worked petty jobs to scrape up some cents into their pockets for the day.

It only seemed natural that as soon as Percy turned eighteen he enlisted into the Army. You’d think that hearing war stories from his mother via the letters written by his father to his mother, it would push him further away from possibly going to war. But the suffering that they went through, Percy wanted to prove himself. He wanted to get high into the ranks, get decorated and make sure that his mother, who was a saint of God, would never have to suffer ever again.

And that is just what he did.

Percy was part of the American Rifle Company which was a small group of ragtag, gritty Americans who wanted nothing more than to kill Nazis and win this war quickly and save Europe from Hitler and his Third Reich. His commanding officer, Christopher Brunner was one of the Generals of the Army with a five star pentagon on his uniform. He had been Percy’s mentor for as long as he could remember. General Christopher “Chiron” (as many people nicknamed him after the wise centaur teacher from Greek mythology” Brunner was a father figure to his commanding officers and to those under his command. He was stern as expected, but his brown eyes weren’t intimidating or condescending. He wanted his army to be the best there ever was, and he was willing to help his people out in any circumstances.

Now here he was in the town of Nantes, a little place a few miles away from the Atlantic Ocean.He and his friends had managed to take control of the little town, as well as others in Vichy France. That was the goal of his group, the slowly take control of little towns that were under Axis rule to scare them. So far, the plan had been working. Now he and his group are in a bar in Nantes, drinking over their victory of scaring (more like killing) the Germans out of Nantes. The bartender said drinks were on him for the victory and liberation.

The dingy smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke filled the small underground place. Laughter could be heard as people tried to tell stories from back home over each other. Some of his guys were practicing their horrible french, which out of the corner of Percy’s eye he could see the bartender wincing at every time. The record player was playing some jazz making the atmosphere a little more calm. Percy found himself tapping his foot to the beat of the song and humming.

“Perce, c’mon and play with us!” Travis called over with a beer in his hand.

Percy scooted his wooden chair over next to Travis and his brother Connor. They both had cigarettes in their hands taking a puff every couple of seconds. Everyone else seemed to be calm and content with life.

“What are we playing boys?” he asked.

Leo Valdez, the genius mechanic of the group snapped his fingers with his cigarette hanging out of his mouth about to fall out.

“Y’know that game where we write a person or thing for each other and we have to guess what it is,” he tried to explain.

Jason Grace, the golden boy of the group and the other co-captain clapped his hands together with a smile on his face. Standing at 6’1” with a stocky build, and the blonde hair perfectly cropped and combed back at all times, he looked like a real life Captain America Percy had read on his days off (which were far and few in between).

“Let’s do this.”

Everyone took a sheet of paper and a pencil that was on the table and wrote down something before passing it to the left. They all licked it and stuck it on top of their forehead so they couldn’t see it.

Just as they were about to start playing, the door screeched open revealing a tall woman in a red dress that hugged her body and went just above her knees. She had black gloves on with a little red hat on with netting covering her face. Her blonde hair was curled up past her shoulders in an elegant way that most women did now a days. Her black heels made her even taller and she walked with a aura of grace and confidence.

Every guy stopped and stared at her with their jaws open. They couldn’t really see her face because of the netting of her hat but she slowly walked across the room towards the bartender, her heels making an echoing clicking sound. She put her hands down on the counter and leaned against it. All the guys were infatuated with this woman.

“Bonjour, je voudrais un verre de whisky s'il vous plaît,” her voice was like an angel speaking.

Percy had never seen someone more beautiful in his entire life. It was like god had sent an angel down upon him and he didn’t know how to react. The bartender nodded and got her the shot of whisky she asked for. She thanked him and turned around with the amber liquid in her hand. The netting was raised up revealing her startling gray eyes that made Percy lose his breath for a moment. Her bright red lipstick smile stretched as she made her way over to the table and sat down next to Percy. She looked at all of their uniforms.

“Ah, Americans I see,” she said with a heavy accent. Percy couldn’t quite distinguish what it was. It sounded like a mix between French and German.

None of them answered her remark as she made eye contact with all of them. She shot down the whisky and put the glass on the wooden table.

“Mind if I play with you men?” she asked.

All of them just nodded yes in silence. They were still stunned by her beauty when she walked in alone. Her sharp, dark brown eyebrows scrunched together in slight confusion and she held out a perfectly manicured hand out.

“Someone going to give me a card or shall I write one for myself and cheat?”

Jason quickly wrote something down and gave it to her face down. She gave a tight smile and placed it on her head like a lady would do.

“So what’s your name my fine lady?” Leo finally asked her.

“Anna,” she clipped back.

“Beautiful name,” Nico di Angelo complimented.

He was from Venice, born right after the March on Rome and Mussolini had taken control over Italy and made it into a Fascist state. His mother and sister booked it out of there by sneaking out into France and immigrating into the United States. He hated the Axis Powers probably more than anyone because they had killed his sister while in France trying to escape. He wanted them all dead as vengeance for Bianca.

“Merci,” she deadpanned back, her gray eyes staring deeply into the Italian.

“You know, I am very good at this game,” she said with a small smile.

“Is that so?” Connor asked.

“Oui, I will prove it to you. Am I French?”

The name on her card was King Kong, therefore she was not a human at all. All the men said no and shook their heads. She nodded lighting a cigarette and putting it in her mouth for a puff.

“Am I an a American?” she said with a smirk playing on her lips.

All the men gave a quick chuckle and repeated no to her. She pursed her lips together before taking another puff of the cigarette in her left hand.

“Well you weren’t born in America at least,” Leo added.

“I’ve been to America?” was her quick question in response. All the men said yes.

Her gray eyes narrowed and Percy could practically see the gears turning in her head as she thought of the next question.

“Did I have a purpose for coming to America?”

“No not really,” Connor added.

The gleam in her eye got brighter as she seemed to be on a roll with the questions. She could tell that she was getting closer to the possible answer.

“Is my land I hail from, what you call exotic?”

Quick yes’ came from all around the table as they smoked their cigarettes and drank their beer from their mugs. Percy could see that Anna felt quite comfortable and content around a bunch of military men. She probably hung out with them all the time to do performances and what not. He wouldn’t be surprised.

“Am I from the jungle?”

Another round of yes came echoing around. Her smirk was growing bigger by the question.

“Okay, so I’m not from America, I’m from the jungle and my purpose for visiting was not for me, but from others. Now I would usually ask if it’s real or fiction but that just seems too easy so I won’t,” she bragged and leaned back in her seat.

She slowly made eye contact around the table and when she stopped at Percy, she seemed to look deep into his eyes and down into his soul. She maintained that eye contact as she asked the next question.

“Did I come to America on boat?”

Everyone hummed yes.

“Against my will?”

Another yes.

“In chains?”

The guys were getting excited as she was making her way closer to the answer. The answers were getting louder from everyone as well.

“Was I displayed in chains in America?”

“Yes!” Everyone answered.

“Am I Negroes in America then?” she finally asked.

“No.”

With a quick shrug of her shoulders she took another drag of her cigarette, blew out the smoke and killed it in the ash tray.

“Then I must be King Kong,” she said with finality.

Percy was extremely impressed with her quick ability to figure that out. Her card could’ve been anything in the world and she was able to narrow it down in less than two minutes. This woman in front of him was extremely intelligent and she knew it. She stood up from her chair and brushed her dress down to get the invisible wrinkles and dust out.

“It’s been a pleasure men, and congrats on taking this town away from Hitler. Captain Jackson,” she nodded at Percy with a twinkle in her gray eye.

With that she walked out the door.

“Percy! You have to go after her!” Leo exclaimed loudly.

“She was totally baiting you to go to her! Do it now before it’s too late! I bet she’s waiting outside right now,” Jason added.

“Go! Go! Go!” all his friends chanted.

He stood up with his hands out in mock surrender. His friends were right, this beautiful, angelic woman was maybe just as into him as he was to her. He was going to go after Anna and talk to her a little more and privately away from his friends. He put on his military cap and straightened out his jacket before walking out as well. The streets were dark except for the lights above all the shops and homes dimly lighting them up. Down the cobblestone he saw Anna sitting on a bench reading a book. He jogged up to her with a smile on his face.

“Anna!” he called out.

She looked up from her reading and when she saw him, a small smile graced her face. She gently dog tagged the page she was on and closed the book placing it next to her. Her tote bag she was carrying was in her lap and she had her legs crossed at the ankles with her heels touching the stone.

“Percy, I see you’ve come after me,” she slyly said with a smirk.

He walked closer and peered over to see what book she had been reading, obviously waiting for him to show up. The first thing he noticed was the cover was a bright red, just like the dress she was wearing. The second thing he saw was that the book was in German. He looked up at her with his eyebrows raised.

“You can read German?” he asked.

She stood up to face him after this. She was tall to begin with, and with heels she was almost taller than Percy himself. It was a little intimidating considering Percy wasn’t a small guy. She had slipped her black gloves on her hands again and was holding them elegantly together.  

“And write and speak it. It is my first language after all,” she softly told him.

Percy was confused and narrowed his eyes at Anna. He didn’t like the way she was smirking and her tone of voice she was using.

“You’re not French?” he asked.

“Of course not. I hate the French. Us Germans have had a long and nasty rivalry that we are still fighting about,” she told him fixing her hat with calmness.

She took another step forward towards Percy who was starting to feel very uneasy around Anna. She placed a gloved hand on his shoulder slowly looking up at him in the eyes. She really was beautiful up close. On her nose there was freckles sprinkled across and on either side of her cheekbones. Her black eyeliner made her gray eyes even more like a thunderstorm.

“I know all about your American Rifle Company Percy Jackson. And I don’t like the way you’re killing my soldiers and taking my territory from me,” she said in a condescending tone.

“What are you talking about?” he asked getting more angry all of a sudden that she was treating him like an idiot.

“You are the leader of an American force that so far has been successful. I know who you are, and you definitely know who I am,” she said with a little more force.

He took a step back from Anna who now had her arms behind her back and a steely glare in her eyes.

“And who exactly are you, ‘Anna’?” he growled.

“Only Hitler’s best battle taction and the one whose job is to eliminate you,” she said like it was no big deal.

Percy knew exactly who this woman was now. He had never seen her in person, or had any pictures of what she looked like, but he knew someone was coming after him, and he knew the name of the assassin. Annabeth Chase.

Her surname is certainly fitting, he stupidly thought to himself for a few seconds.

It was those few seconds of thought where she made her escape from him before he could kill her himself. Percy cursed himself for zoning out being so close to his arch nemesis and kicked the ground in frustration. He wanted to pull his hair out for being so stupid. Percy took a few deep breaths trying to calm himself down. When he finally did he looked back to the bench where Annabeth had perfectly baited him and taunted him right in front of his face. The book she was reading was still on there. He walked up to it and picked it up.

On it read Mein Kampf written by the one and only Adolf Hitler. He opened up the cover to see a little note written on the inside.

It read in perfect script:

It would be my honor to kill you in battle Percy Jackson.

Yours truly,

Annabeth Chase

She even had the audacity to add some xoxo's at the end of it. Percy cursed himself once more before stomping his way back to the bar with the idea of killing the devil in disguise as an angel.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> And that's a wrap! I had a lot of fun writing this. Probably because it appeals to my love of historical fiction and history. I hope you liked it. 
> 
> Send in some AU prompts you wanna see. 
> 
> Thanks guys and gals! Until next time.


End file.
